Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving festivities...what fun! Nothing says it better than pictures so here we go...

Popa and Aarayln on the guitar

Elise in on the music too!

Hayride

Aaralyn counting the stars

Oh...the food! The GOOOOOD food!

And of course...the fried turkey!

and desserts...yumm!

Wagon rides...

Aaralyn, Elise, Hannah and Caleb

a family shot....wow, we got one!!


putting up Christmas decorations at Grandma's house


Marlana and Kimberly

Caleb hammering in the nativity :)

And to wrap it up...Dad shooting a gun

So, as you can see, we had a great time!!

Happy Birthday to...

DONNY!!

Yes, Donny has officially gotten another year older and here are the pics to prove it!

The cake for birthday lunch.
Yes, my friends. That is a LOT of candles!!

Girls very excited to have a bit!

We had a party for Donny at Dog et Al, a great hot dog place in Tallahassee.
Donny got the Big Foot Dog. Wow.

Conrad, Jessica, Angel, Raj, Vishan, and Johnny

Perfect timing for a visit from Donny's friend Steven and his family Ruth and Mason!

Kelsey and Susan

Dave and Katie

Aaron

Elizabeth and Mel having a blast, as usual :)

the ever elusive Chris

sweet Lexi

Funny Aaralyn enjoying her hot dog

Elise and her peas :)

It was a good day!

Happy Birthday to...

ELISE!!!

Wow! What a year! Here we are at Elise's First Birthday and I am shocked!

Elise has been such a joy this past year. We are so blessed to have her in our lives and apart of our family. I am so thankful for this smiley, happy little one. She has stolen our hearts in so many ways!

I am looking forward to this next year with our little girl and I know it will be even better than the last!

Here are some pictures from her party. Enjoy!

yummy cupcake!

First bite

sooo good!

Aaralyn is a fan!
Present time!

Gift from her big sister!

Thanks for everything!

SCTNow

On the 27th of September, our family was proud to be apart of a walk for STOP Child Trafficking Now. In a nutshell, here is what SCTNow is...

The STOP Child Trafficking Now global campaign targets the source of child trafficking: predators who drive the sex industry everywhere in the world, including in your local community. SCTNow has partnered with specially trained elite operatives familiar with what it takes to infiltrate, investigate and bring to justice the predators victimizing children worldwide. Never before in history has there been a system in place in which every concerned parent and citizen around the world can come together to support and fund highly qualified former government agents to track down and build cases against child predators! It's time we take control of this problem and stop them!

FSU ENCM was the group to bring this very important cause to Tallahassee and we were so proud of our students as they spearheaded this walk.

Here are some pics from that day:

Elisabeth at the registration table

Our very own Alyssa taking the donations!

Donny and our girls about to take off in the stroller

Miss Lexie!

Dena and her emotional Spoken Word about child sex slavery. Fabulous!

Donny speaking appreciation to all for coming

Walk to the Capital building
over 150 people walked with us!

BIG thank you to Susan and Amber for doing such a great job!

September starts!

Aaralyn started "school" again at the beginning of the month. Actually, she is a part of a Mother's Morning Out program at our church. She goes twice a week from 9-1230. She plays with kids her age, learns colors, numbers and other sorts of kiddie knowledge, has lunch and ABSOLUTELY LOVES IT! Not to mention, I get the morning off (well, not exactly off...I still have Little Bit around!) I know it is good for Aaralyn to learn to socialize with other kids and I am so thankful to be able to have her involved.

So here she is...

She was SUPER excited!

Elise's face says: "you're leaving me to go where?!?"
:)

In other news, the wonderful folks at Rivertown Community Church know how to take care of people! They are one of the many folks that support us as missionaries. They recently found out that we were in need of a couch, so they provided one for us! Not only that, but I got to pick it out and everything! I LOVE it and am super humbled, once again, by the over-and-beyond giving by this church.

So here was our couch before in it's sad state...

yes...the middle was unusable

And here is our NEW couch...

The girls were as excited as I was!
...well, not really. I was SUPER excited!!

We have gotten LOTS of wonderful use out of it this past month...and lots of ministry has happened on those seats already!! Thank you again, RCC!

Standing, Sleeping, Standing

Standing: Guess who's standing? Yep...it's official! I turned around one day and she had stood up! Wow was I suprised! I got these pictures later that day...it seems that as soon as she figured it out, she didn't want to stop.

Sleeping: Donny woke up with the girls one morning and when I came out to the living room, this is what I saw. I love this picture!
Standing: These are Aaralyn's "friends." She loves to stand them up and have them "talk" to each other. She will reenact things she has seen them do on TV and have them give hugs and kisses. I love it when she develops her imagination...especially when she is doing it on her own!!

Well, that finishes August! September coming soon...